This grant instrument requests financial support for a conference on "Plasmids in Bacteria". Bacterial plasmids play a central role in the current revolution taking place in biological research. Since these small pieces of extra chromosomal DNA provide convenient vehicles for amplifying and transferring foreign genes from one living cell to another, plasmid technology provides the fundamental basis for experiments in gene splicing and gene transfer. Future basic research in the biological sciences as well as commercial applications by the many new companies which have been formed to exploit genetic engineering depend heavily on an understanding of bacterial plasmids. Already several new products of great medical significance, such as human insulin, growth hormone, human interferons, viral hepatitis antigens, etc., have been developed commercially using plasmid vectors. It is now clear that current work in the "in vitro" synthesis of new medical and agricultural products via bacterial plasmids represents only the tip of an iceberg of new product development. Future manipulation in plant genetics may solve problems ranging from susceptibility of plants to disease to the independence of plant growth from man-made fertilizers. Genetic engineering also provides a powerful new tool for basic research in gene regulation and development. Exciting new discoveries in the cancer field such as the identification and cloning of human oncogenes finds its roots in plasmid technology.